Good morning from Augusta, where Gov. Paul LePage will make a renewed push for his plan to beef up the apprehension and prosecution of drug criminals. The Republican governor has proposed funding for an additional four District Court judges, seven additional Maine Drug Enforcement agents and four assistant attorneys general, all with an eye toward […]

The Department of Health and Human Services put out the call Monday for more families to step forward to help children in need. Here are the sobering statistics: There are 1,990 children in foster care. Of those, 502 are seeking adoption. If you think about it, 500 kids out there wondering if they’ll ever have a […]

Good morning, folks. Another busy day is on tap in Augusta with a long list of bills being introduced today and some poised to be sent on to the full Legislature. Have you ever written a bad check? If you did, I hope it was an oversight. At any rate, Rep. John Joseph Picchiotti, R-Fairfied, […]

Good morning from Augusta, legislative committees are continuing to plow through the thousands of bills on docket this session. Normally we outline some bills to watch, but we’ve got so much stuff for you in the Daily Brief today that I’m going to leave you to your own devices with a link to the public […]

Maine could become the 28th state to join the call for a constitutional convention with the hopes of amending the U.S. Constitution to require balanced budgets at the federal level. Jim Cyr, a spokesman for Senate President Michael Thibodeau, R-Winterport, confirmed Thursday that Thibodeau would introduce a joint resolution in the Legislature at the request […]

Good morning from Augusta, where the fallout from the sudden firing of Brig. Gen. James Campbell, who until Tuesday was the head of the Maine National Guard, is still reverberating. In an interview with the BDN, Campbell categorically denied that he lied to the public about plans to transform the storied 133rd Engineer Battalion into […]

Bruce Poliquin, Maine’s freshman 2nd District congressman, voted on the side of austerity Wednesday evening when he cast his support behind the so-called Price 1 and Price 2 budget bills. The votes spurred Democrats to call Poliquin a “one-term wonder” and a rubber stamp for GOP policies that would slash social safety nets and curtail programs […]

Good morning. Do you feel like you’re adequately represented in the Legislature? How far do you live from your state senator? If you live in one of the rural parts of the state, chances are your senator lives miles away but if you live in a city, she’s probably within a few miles. That’s because […]

Democratic Rep. Diane Russell of Portland showed up in the Washington Post this morning as the primary subject of a column by journalism titan Katrina vanden Heuvel. Russell, who is serving her fourth term in the House of Representatives, has carved out her own niche as a lawmaker who is willing to buck the will of party […]

For the second time in as many days, Maine’s official government website, maine.gov, was the subject of a denial-of-service cyber attack on Tuesday. The effect of such attacks is to make the targeted website inaccessible to all users. In other words, maine.gov was knocked offline. The site was first attacked by an anonymous group on […]